So a few weeks back, Boss Man pops in my office and says we have a TOMCAR demo at a resort in Pennsylvania and do I want to come with him and meet our Business Development Representative out there. I figure sure, sounded intriguing. Then he springs on me that we were going to fly. Well duh, driving to a resort south of Pittsburgh would take a whole day. But before I could book my Northworst ticket, he says that he’d be flying us….

OH GAWD!

Here’s the scoop…Boss Man is a pilot. I admire that. He has regaled me with a few stories about jumpin’ in the plane and going here and there. That’s real cool, until YOU have to be the one to squeeze into the “four-seat” flying tin can. Look it is not like I don’t trust him, it’s just I have NEVER been in a little prop plane before and I was really nervous. To his credit, he did tell me that I didn’t have to go if I wasn’t comfortable. I appreciated that, but figured I had to man up and get on that plane.

This is the plane, a CIRRUS SR22.

Yeah, pretty plane…pretty SMALL!!!   Oh boy!!  Even still Boss Man was trying to calm my nerves by constantly reminding me that the plane has a parachute back-up system.  No, that’s not two chutes in the back for us to jump out…the PLANE has a CHUTE!  While you think that might instill confidence, it really just kept freakin’ me out.

So Monday comes and off we go to the Pontiac Oakland Airport.  Stomach starts turning a bit.  I call Better Half to let her know I’m getting ready to take off and I can hear the worry in her voice, which even while I an trying to reassure her things are going to be great, I’m thinking in the back of my head “I’m getting on a plane with it’s own parachute.”

Well it turns out that it WAS a great flight.  There was a remarkable amount of room in the cabin, even for a 6’5″ guy, more than I’d ever have in coach on ANY airline.  The plane had the latest in navigation, weather and GPS equipment.  Skies were perfect and the wind at our backs.  I can see how easy it is to get accustomed to traveling like that. 

On top of all that, it made a ton of sense to fly as the resort has their own landing strip and the entire trip would only end up taking 1.5 hours (opposed to about 7.5 by car).  Also with mileage paying out at something like $0.565 per mile, it was cheaper too.

I will not belittle or bemoan any company who has a jet or uses a flight service.  Sometimes you got to get in and out!  This way you are not subject to the airlines schedule and/or any problems / delays they might encounter.  You don’t have to deal with hoards for leisure travelers (who I really have a great deal of disdain for as I travel more and more frequently for business).  It just makes sense.  There is a cost for that convenience, but I believe that costs is outweighed by productivity and lack of “lost” time due that you incur during normal airline travel.

So Boss Man – when we flyin’ again?

Tomorrow – more about the resort we visited…

Wait a minute…what happened to “Nerd News…Week 7″??  Well, I haven’t been nerdy at all lately!  Two full weeks have past since my last nerd post and seriously, I am shocked, SHOCKED at how “normal” my life has been these last few weeks.  Work has a lot to do with it.  When I was with Fathead, it was all sports and entertainment al the time.  At TOMCAR, well, it’s all about cars and off-road and military and heavy industry…so focus shifts.  And with Lil’ Baird in the picture, the time to sit and play a game for 12 hours straight, or plow through my comic books or even just surf the interwebs as been greatly reduced.

So here was what little nerdy things I was able to come with during these last two weeks.

• “LOST” continues to rock.  I completed LOVED this last week’s Saywer ep.
• I picked up a little Indiana Jones figure at Toys R’ Us when we were getting Lil’ Baird a bouncy.  It’s the classic outfit from “Raiders” and he has a pistol, whip and fertility idol.  I have given him a place of honor on my desk.  It is too bad that “Crystal Skull” sucked so bad, because these toys deserved a chance.  Hasbro did a real good job with them.
• “Burn Notice” ended it’s third season this week and it was a doosey!!  Season four starts back up this summer.  One of my guilty pleasures and it has Bruce Campbell in it!!
• I did watch a bunch of “The F Word” when I got home from Chicago, eight episodes.  They were all from 2007, but I don’t care.  I am developing a man crush for Gordon Ramsey.  Not the U.S. version, but the REAL Ramsey on BBC America.  Also watched two episodes for “Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares” from BBC last night as well…it’s literally night and day his delivery back home vs. what FOX does to his shows here.
• I HAVE NOT SEEN “WATCHMEN” YET!!!  More of Lil’ Baird ruining my life*…we are going to try to see it this week…just need a sitter.
• And finally, I have rediscovered Ebay…to my own peril.  I was a junky back in the early days, buying just about my entire collection of 12″ Star Wars “dolls” on Ebay.  I hadn’t been on in about 2 years and suddenly found myself back last week.  I got to surfing around and ended up bidding on five things, winning three!!  One was a really cool 1980′s “Return of the Jedi” action figure case in the shape of a Stormtrooper rifle.  It still has a KayBee Toys price sticker on it and is in great shape.  Also picked up a Hallmark ornament that I missed three years ago (Imperial Guard) and a set of misc. figures from the late 90′s.  More stuff for the collection…now if I’d just buy the rest of my shelves, maybe I can show it off.

*I may love my baby, but I am not above callin’ her out.  NOTE: when I say things like this…please note that I am a sarcastic ba$tard.

Well here I am in Chicago for the week. TOMCAR is exhibiting at the Work Truck Show this Wednesday through Friday and I came in today to handle load-in.

Chicago is like a sweater…it’s just familiar.  All the weekends spent partying, the time working here with Feld Entertainment, I got used to this place.  I haven’t had reason to be here for almost a year though so it’s good to be back.

I say this even while I maintain my love/hate relationship with this place…like many Detroiters I just can’t completely embrace Chicago.  I really do like it here, I believe it’s one of the best cities in the US, but…it’s still Chicago…home of the Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks and the smugness that comes with those teams.  I can’t stand Chicago fans…almost as worse as New York fans.  Aside from sports, there’s also a bit of why not us when you see this midwest city on a great lake.

Anyhoo, I’ll be here all week and I have to say I started the week off pretty good from a culinary standpoint.  Right around the corner from my hotel is a relatively new place called Farmerie 58. They were still working off of last week’s “Dine Chicago” menu so I got a great three course dinner for $32.  Now looking over the menu, I was almost ready to go with the safe bets – chopped salad, spare ribs, chocolate tart – but after my first martini I got a little adventurous and went with -  butternut squash soup, pork chop with cranberry reduction, apple chutney and fingerling potatoes and the white chocolate bread pudding with caramel popcorn and vanilla cream.  WOW! 

All three were fantastic!  But since we love the pork here, let me tell you that pork chop was just tatsy!!  I don’t typically eat pork chops, we don’t buy them at home and it’s always easier to run with a steak when I go out, but last night I was glad I switched things up.  What really made it was the cranberry and apple.  There was a nice crispy glaze over top the meat and the apple chuttney was stuffed inside, bringing wonderful flavors to the meat.  You just can’t go wrong with those classic tastes!

Based on my dinner tonight, I’m giving Farmerie 58 EIGHT piggies eating bacon.

There’s this little Belgium restaurant / pub in Royal Oak, MI called Bastone’s.  It’s quickly becoming a default place for when my boss and I have to entertain co-workers or partners from out of town.  They have a very interesting menu and make all their own beer (which is quite tasty!).

So yesterday, we had the folks from TOMCAR Australia* in town and we all went out for dinner at Bastone’s.  We took way to long to decide our mains as we were engaged in beer consumption and conversation.  So we finally get to ordering and I start scrambling because I barely looked at the menu (the only thing I saw was that they changed their mac & cheese where before it was this GREAT black truffle mac & cheese to now a spinach and artichoke mac & cheese…yuck!).  Boss man orders a pizza and I think quickly, that sounds good, so my eyes quickly scan the pizza section and I see the word “bacon”.  So of course, what do I order?  The bacon pizza.

The pizza’s are individual 12″ pies, a good size for me.  I can typically put down a whole pizza from CPK and those are about the size.  This pizza was soooooooo rich however, I only could eat three slices!!! (SHOCK!!!) Don’t get me wrong, it was delicious, it was just a little to decadent.  It was made with a white sauce, fontana cheese, bacon and caramelized onions.  There were real good size slices of bacon on the pie with pretty even coverage.  The way that bacon and fontana blended, with the cheese taking in the bacon grease as it cooked…YUMMY!

I feel compelled to give Bastone’s, for this pizza only……

Eight piggies eating bacon!  While it was delicious, with all that richness it was just a little too much!
* It seems I have a bacon compatriot from the land down under.  I will be sharing his “Bacon Chronicles” in the coming weeks.

So, as he tens of you who read this know, I was out in Tulare, CA for the World Ag Show this last week.

Last year at this time…Super Bowl   This year…Ag Show!  Ah Life, what a strange trip you have put me on…

Now I present my photo essay (with some snarky/maybe witty asides).  I call this “Fish Way the HELL Out of Water!”

The can grow ANYTHING these days...

Of Course...

"Reverse Sorting"...is that what the kids are callin' it?

Marketing Hat on...I LOVE this logo!

Gives a whole new meaning to "Burnt Ends". KA-POW!

Sorry guys...it's for COWS!

One of the many things that could kill me at this show..

Really??? REALLY????

Nothing Funny Here - I Just Think it's HELLA COOL!

HEAVEN!

The best part of my week - the TRI-TIP SANDWICH!

I think that cow was makin' it happen in the photo...

Kidding aside, it was a real interesting show and TOMCAR showed real well.  The show organizers and volunteers were terrific.  This was one of the easiest shows I have ever had to work.

Our display looked great and we had a pretty steady stream of people over the three days.  Here are a couple shots…

Our Display for the First Time

Our car ROCKS!

We’ll see how things go these next few weeks…who knows, I could be making hotel reservations in Tulare for February 2010.

Load in day the the World Ag Show yesterday…oh boy, this is a huge show!  Over 1,600 exhibitors and TOMCAR has a “little” 40 x 40 space.  Seriously, what would be a great space in any normal show is dwarfed by this show.  Actually set up went real well considering it was the first time we ever put this together.  I’ll have photos later in the week.

Not much around here for in terms of getting dinner.  Ended up going to Logan’s Steakhouse last night.  At least beer was cold.  Little surprise was the crisp, warm chopped bacon they put on their side salad.  Not having any bacon since Wednesday, it was, shall we say, YUMMY!

Over on our Facebook group, I announced “Bacon Sunday II“.

I’ve created Bacon Sunday to encourage people to set time for themselves, get together with family and/or their friends and enjoy a big ole breakfast!  That includes bacon of course   Stop by FB, join the group and just say “YES” to attending Bacon Sunday!

I received a bunch of links this week.  Thank you everyone, please keep them coming!  A good many of them were about Bacon Explosion.  Here are a few others:

• I don’t know if I could do this…but I am sure he’ll enjoy it!  Every sweet bite!
• How about some Coffee and Brown Sugar Bacon?  (Thanks Melissa - SHOUT OUT)
• This great piece of writing was found on my fellow wordpresser’s blog – Bacon Haikus.  A new one every day…I admire both the love for bacon AND how prolific they are! (Thx Courtney – SHOUT OUT)

Collins can feel it

Wafting in the air tonight

Don’t smell twice, bacon.

Some travel stuff…

The new terminal at Detroit Metropolitan Airport is FANTASTIC.  Clean, bright, colorful in punches, good mix of restaurants. I actually like it better than the McNamara terminal that was built a few years ago for Northwest (now Delta).

If you are going west and you have time, fly FRONTIER!!  You’ll always have a lay over in Denver out of Detroit, but there fares are usually pretty good and the have 32 channels of Direct TV!!  It sooooooo helps having TV on board.  Plus, for those who may not know, I am 6’5″ so flying for anything over 3 hours and I start getting uncomfortable and pretty crabby so I don’t mind the layover.  Three hours from DTW to Denver, 3 hours from Denver to SFO and all the time, SportsCenter!!!  Quick story – Better Half and I flew Frontier down to Puerto Vallarta last year and on the way home, the Wings were playing Dallas and scored a goal to go ahead late in the game and out came a YEAH!!! from my seat.  Completely forgot where I was and ended up scaring everyone around me (Think I may have even woke someone up).

That’s all today – going to get some breakfast and yes, bacon will be involved.

Coming to you LIVE from the Denver International Airport…

I am on my way to Tulare, CA by way of Denver to San Francisco then driving to Fresno. Why am I going through all these hoops to get to Tulare? I am attending the World Ag Show. That is right, the World Ag Show.

The fine company I work for, TOMCAR, is exhibiting at this show and showing off some new vehicles and accessories. I developed our new display and am heading out to make sure load-in goes smoothly and then to walk this show.

I am totally out of my element here. While I graduated from a fine “agriculutural” institution (Michigan State University, one of the original Land Grant colleges), I went and studied Telecommunications (essentially radio and TV).

What does this have to do with bacon? Well I figure the World Ag Show has to have some exhibitors who deal in pork and pork products. Reports coming throughout the week.

PS – I’d like to thank everyone for sending me some great links these last two weeks. It is VERY appreciated!

Well last week I was super nerdy.  This week, not much…

I did spend Thursday in front of the TV with that stomach virus, but I just got caught up on “Top Chef” and a really old episode of “Bones“.  There was an interesting special on Air Force One on History Channel, but I don’t remember too much of it.

I am enjoying “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” cartoon series on Cartoon Network.

Ohhhh, like my show you do?

I know the movie was crud, but that was because they tried to take three 22 minutes episodes and squeeze them together as a theatrical.  The series is really crisp with some interesting story lines. Even the two episodes that have had Jar Jar in them weren’t that bad.  The one thing I am surprised about though is the body count.  I know they are clones and hence dispensable in war, but is this not a kids show?

No time for video games this week, so nothing new there.

My missing Lego pieces came in on Friday, so the Death Star is FINALLY COMPLETE!  More on that this week.

There is a new “Watchmen” viral campaign that launched this week.  This site features a really cool 70′s newscast clip about Dr. Manhattan.

I did get time to read the second volume of “Ex Machina“.  Written by Brian K. Vaughan (also author of “Y: The Last Man” – a MUST read, seriously!), it’s the story of an engineer who accidentally becomes a superhero, ends up saving one of the twin towers during 9-11 and goes on to become the mayor of New York.  It is a great read and one that I am sorry to say I didn’t pick up on when it first came out.  Thank the maker for graphic novels.

The only other thing is to figure out what nerd stuff I will be putting in my new office at work.  TOMCAR has been sharing office space with another company and we’ve all sort of been intertwined.  We’re sort of formalizing space in the building now and the side we are taking included enough office space for yours truly to get his own little office.  It’s great cause it’s right on the corner of the building and has two walls of glass!! But two walls of glass also equals a cold room in the middle of January.  Oh well, price to pay.

Here’s hoping for a more nerdy week this week!